Letters praising Helena Guergis written by Guergis’s assistant

It must be tough to be Helena Guergis, junior Tory cabinet minister for Simcoe-Grey. Between her airport tantrum in Charlottetown and her ex-MP hubby’s wrist slap, the media and the Opposition have been hounding her mercilessly. Fed up with all the bad press, one of her constituents valiantly decided to take action and write a series of letters defending her to newspapers in her riding. Hooray for democracy, right? Well, kind of. It came out yesterday that the concerned constituent happened to be Guergis’s executive assistant, Jessica Craven. As a result of this wee fact, the effect of the letters turned out to be opposite to the one that was intended.

Craven wrote the letters using her married name, Morgan, so as to “make sure they were separate from what I do for a living.” Craven/Morgan told the Sun, “I am a voter in Simcoe-Grey with my own opinions.” The concerned voter, who would be out of a job if her employer were to lose her seat, apologized to anyone who “might have been offended,” including her boss, who she claims wasn’t aware of the grassroots subterfuge.

We don’t want to be too hard on Craven/Morgan—mostly because we don’t want to receive any letters from some concerned citizen on her behalf—but we do think there’s a lesson for political staffers everywhere: if you’re going to heap glowing praise on your employer, stick to Internet comments.